Like many Living Wage ordinances, this one would also only apply to employers who receive city subsidies, in this case more than $1 million. It would raise pay to $11.50 an hour, or roughly $24,000 per year for those without benefits (vs. the state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, or roughly $15,000 annually) , and $10 per hour with benefits. Advocates of the bill even admit that currently this would affect roughly 600 total workers, this in the largest (and perhaps most expensive) city in the US, with a population of over 8 million people.

Apparently, on his weekly radio address, Mayor Bloomberg was reported as saying about the bill:

“Not good for employers. But if you force that you will just drive businesses out of the city. You just cannot force employers to pay a rate that isn’t sustainable in their business.”

Ignoring for the moment the many well researched papers (incl. one from CEPR ) and on the minimal effect of employment in cities adopting similar Living Wage ordinances, and the fact that this bill would affect such a miniscule number of workers among the multitudes similarly asking for dignity, what struck me about Mayor Bloomberg’s comment was his use of the hopelessly meaningless word, “sustainable”.

His argument rests on the notion that society should somehow condone, and by inference support businesses built on exploitation– simply because that was in their business plan.

This is the argument successfully put forth to legislators behind the multi-decade outsourcing of corporate responsibility to America’s labor force and working families: seen in the precipitous decline of real wages, the heartless attack on retiree pensions, the shrinking of benefits and full-time employment, the deterioration of working conditions affecting worker safety, the irresponsible destruction of the environment, and the recent assault on what the United Nations long ago declared a universal human right: the right to collective bargaining.

Businesses are able to convince their paid-for representatives that paying a Living Wage, a pension, health care, providing adequate worker safety and environmental protections are simply beyond the means of today’s competitive business climate. All the while, asking you to look the other way each quarter as they report their obscene profits to their sycophant friends on Wall Street– who promptly reward the same corporate executives with higher stock prices on their ill gotten options.

And the beat goes on.

More money to the executives. More money to keep legislators in office.
And a steeper path to poverty for everyone else.

Meanwhile, municipalities (strike that– the middle class) are asked to pick up the tab of working people living in poverty in their own communities. Food pantries straining to meet massive rises in food insecurity, emergency room’s bruised from the uninsured using the ER as their general practitioner, mounting housing subsidies and neighborhood blight from malicious foreclosures, and environmental apathy and destruction. The very victims of this travesty are asked to pay for what corporations should be paying for out of their profits– and THIS is what should be in their business plans.

How about a new “sustainable” means test for city business permits in the most wealthy of all US cities: an employer requirement that all employees are paid a Living Wage–

or “no license for You”?

I am grateful for so many things in my life. Truly.

Sometimes, I admit, despite such good fortune, it is hard to remain firmly grounded in all of the beauty of my life, and this world. What tends to bring me back, more often than not, is Passion.

I’ve been lucky. When I was coming of age there were lots of friends and acquaintances in my Gen X community who were lost. They didn’t really know what they wanted to do, or where they were headed. Many years passed and despite searching with a profound (and perhaps misapplied) sense of urgency, they struggled to come up with the “answers”. This only added frustration, and a bit of depression to their lives…

Me? I’ve always had lots of things I was passionate about. And those passions are what keep me alive: my heart racing, soul ever dreaming, mind captivated by idealistic notions of what-can-be, striving to make a difference and upend societal values that cause so much harm to an incomprehensible many, yearning to share life with someone truly special– with a connection like no other.

This little winery encompasses many of those passions. That is what makes it so intense for me, but also so indescribably beautiful. I have been able to weave my love of crafting something with my hands– something firmly rooted in the soil, and the cycle of the seasons– with my artistic inclinations (winemaking and photography), social justice missions, and of course, watching the business grow while my beautiful boy grows in, and along side, of it.

Sometimes it feels like the success of Shoe Shine Wine // Justice Grace Vineyards is nothing short of a real-time referendum on my own deeply held joys and dreams. Of me, itself. I’m sure it feels that way for many family owned businesses across the world.

When I get a moment to come up for air, and a moment of peace to reflect, I realize that I will always continue to pursue my passions, whether the business achieves all that I had hoped, or not. Those passions are as much a part of me, as any part of my body. And they bring me so much of the joy I feel in this world everyday. I can only hope that you get just a glimpse of that from sharing a bottle of Shoe Shine Wine, or lost in thought while looking at one of the abstract winemaking photos. I tried to put it all in there.

I really did.

Consumer Culture:

This even permeates the companies we idolize. Google, the self-proclaimed “Do no harm” company, one of the most well known brands in the world, derives roughly 97% of its revenues from advertising. While organizing the world’s information, they also seem to be indexing your emails, following you on your trips, and storing your searches; generally motivated to create products which enable them to capture more information about you so that they may place ever more “useful” ads in front of your face.

Recently, a frenzy of speculation and wealth was bestowed to another company, Groupon. While Capitalism seems to instill a sense of competition and antagonism among us in so many ways, the one place it is now encouraging us to pull together– is shopping.

Sadly, I think Groupon might be the perfect embodiment of Adam Smith’s theory: You “save” so that We All “save”.

The constant media frenzy around the massive fortunes earned in and around Wall Street, the consumer culture and ad driven paradigm we drown in; this is what feeds the quest for the so called “American Dream”. The desperate quest that results is what opens the door for predators, and speculative bubbles.

Bizarro World of Capitalists:

In October 2009, the New York Times reported what should be an inconceivable fact: that “over the last decade the financial sector was the fastest growing part of the economy, with two-thirds of growth in gross domestic product attributable to the incomes of workers in finance.”

During the recent housing bubble, the commercial and investment banks (Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs et.al.), committed one shameful fraud after another– to millions of people. Institutionalized cultures of exploitation enabled employees up and down the line to do this for years during the bubble (earning massive bonuses along the way), and astoundingly, even after they received bailout money. Yet people still have their checking and savings accounts, and retirement plans at these institutions?

In the bizarro world of Capitalism, the victims become the scoundrels, and the sheisters themselves ask their legislative contract labor for bailouts from their very targets… And get them.

Confounding Paradigm:

Practically speaking, the fate of much of the world rests with corporations, and by extension, Capitalism. Distressingly, in the US, our banking, housing, energy, healthcare, education, and manufacturing sectors are currently all in crisis. Even the Earth itself is in crisis. If human suffering were the sole indicator of success in improving “the lot of ordinary people”, mass populations would have to look with incredulity at their leaders as they continue to assent to world bankers and economists given the solemn evidence on the ground for the past few decades.

Perhaps they might even revolt.

On the whole however, it is not the citizenry, but Capitalism and business-as-usual, that rages ahead.Mainstream media has managed to frame the discussion during this time of crisis as simply “How to fix” what ails these industries; while neglecting to consider whether the system itself is fatally flawed to its core.

In the Bizarro world of the Capitalist paradigm:

• man-made resources are scarce, while natural resources are limitless

• the richest nation on earth has an abundance of scarcity: greed, fear, and antagonism towards your neighbors result

• you build a community to shop together, but antagonize the community that cares for children, the disabled, or elderly

• you buy material things to feel free

• low-price to you (today) is more important than low-cost to society (or much more expensive to you tomorrow)

• outsized monetary rewards are to be earned through exploitation rather than nurturing or caregiving

• we demonize the working class while celebrating the monopolists, barons, and tax cheats

• labor is a cost center within a profit driven business, to be reduced or eliminated over time; but at the same time is also corporate america’s biggest customer

• consumers have become so accustomed to corporate amorality and fraud, that actually prosecuting executives for misdeeds is the outlier

• banks are “too big to fail”– even though, they already have

• the super-rich ask for, and receive, financial “bail-outs”, from those woefully less fortunate than themselves. And get it.

• our consumer culture is so dominant, we have accepted the sale of our own democracy

• you “support the troops” by sending them into harm’s way, on behalf of our nation’s “interests” without the armor they need to survive, but you are unpatriotic if you demand their safe return home

At the end of the day, it seems to me that Adam Smith’s invisible hand is controlled by the mind of a psychopath.

New Paradigm, “Alternative Business Models”, Coming?:

Stephen Covey, in his influential “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, notes:

“The term paradigm shift was introduced by Thomas Kuhn in his highly influential landmark book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn shows how almost every significant breakthrough in the field of scientific endeavor is first a break with tradition, with old ways of thinking, with old paradigms.”

What will it take to change the widespread view that Capitalism is mankind’s greatest benefactor?

Ordinary folks breaking through the endless 24 hour news cycle noise (produced and paid for by corporations) with eyes open wide, and heart ready to feel compassion and empathy for your neighbors once again. And supporting their neighbor’s efforts with every means at their disposal.

I might know. I wasted 15 years of my adult life in New York City’s financial sector, ever-so-slowly opening my eyes, largely in disbelief.

Now, I actually can believe them again.

Donella Meadows, The Global Citizen

Paradigms, are a powerful thing. Shaped by all of our trusted influences– family, friends, associates, religious organizations, schools, and the media, we are conditioned over our lifetimes to believe certain “truths”, and these paradigms become the lenses through which we view ourselves and the world around us. So powerful are they that sometimes they persist despite a lifetime of unique experiences which contradict such beliefs. In other words, we don’t even believe our own eyes.

Nobel winning economist Milton Friedman, once noted of Capitalism:

“The record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of ordinary people, that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.”

As the world increasingly turns to notions of “free-markets”, privatization, global capital markets, deregulation, privately funded elections, and the “austerity” demands of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, it certainly seems that world leaders increasingly share this rosy view.

Capitalism’s paradigm:

In the 18th century, as Capitalism was taking shape, philosopher Adam Smith famously wrote of an “invisible hand” that guided self-interested individuals and shaped markets, ultimately leading to the greatest benefit to society at large.

Of the individual, he writes in “The Wealth of Nations”,

“By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”

For more than 250 years, this notion of pursuing self-interest, both for your own benefit and ultimately for society at large, has fashioned not only economic discourse, but political as well. It is believed that a certain Darwinian-type natural selection process will occur, and that resources, in the form of labor and capital, will flow freely to those offering the greatest return on such. This, combined with a “laissez-faire” policy of little government interference in the efficient allocation of resources by informed market players, will lead to great prosperity for mankind.

Above all else (i.e. people and the planet), individuals should be free to pursue self-interest, and businesses should be free to pursue profit.

How are We Doing?

Now let’s consider the human element: in particular, how are people served by, and how do they fare under this system?

With respect to the long regarded basic necessities of life (food, clothing, and shelter), despite the fact we have an abundance of all of these, structural issues of affordability and access lead to widespread and persistent supply-demand mismatches (i.e. those without).

For example, while tremendous progress has been made in alleviating world hunger, and despite producing more than enough carbohydrates to feed the world, food insecurity and malnourishment remain a daily scourge for nearly 1 billion people. Market mechanisms leading to increasing global volatility in food prices recently led Oxfam International to issue a warning that by 2030, the world may enter a period of permanent food crisis. Worldwide, the United Nations reports, incomprehensibly, that roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted every single year. Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland offers similar estimates about the US, while at the same time there has been a dramatic increase in hunger over the past 3 years; shockingly, 49 million Americans now find themselves among the food-insecure.

In housing, many of the cities and towns ravaged by massive fraud perpetrated by commercial and investment banks (Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, et al) are sitting on troves of empty housing stock– despite widespread homelessness. Here in San Francisco, the Coalition on Homelessness reports that “According to US Census data as of 2010, there are over 36,000 housing units in San Francisco alone that are sitting vacant.” This, in a city widely viewed to have an intractable homeless problem, and a homeless population of roughly 6,500 souls.

I would also include healthcare and education among our basic necessities/ human rights. While there have been many miraculous inventions contributing to a rise in life expectancy in many parts of the world, in the US roughly 50 million people are without health insurance, and countless families have suffered indescribable indignities, and are in financial ruin, simply because someone got sick.

The mess in the public education system, at all levels, is tragic, beyond a tipping point, and still manages to grow worse every year. A permanent underclass is inevitable given the state of education in this country (ready to fill all those increasingly privatized prison cells, no doubt).

So while I would agree that under Capitalism we have made progress in providing for some of the basic necessities of life, and for improving the quality of life, Capitalism does not seem to be providing incentives for addressing issues around access, affordability or providing for the needs of the lower class (i.e. those without money). With tens of millions of Americans now food insecure, without health insurance or access to a worthy education, the “middle-class” is increasingly feeling anxiety and the detrimental effects of this systemic inadequacy as well.

But the problems of Capitalism seem to run deeper than just a supply- demand mismatch.

Values Inherent to Capitalism?:

It is a system seemingly lacking a heart and soul, and the bits of humanity that it self-servingly clings to get slowly withered away over time. It literally rewards exploitation– of people, animals, and the Earth– while simultaneously denigrating the nurturing or caregiving of others.

Scholar Riane Eisler, in “The Real Wealth of Nations”, writes:

“Indeed, this systemic devaluation of the activities that contribute the most to human welfare and development lies behind a kind of economic insanity. For example, the bulk of caring work is not even included in indicators of economic productivity such as GDP (gross domestic product) and GNP (gross national product).”

We know, for example, that we live in a nation of vast riches and resources.

Despite this, we are trained from the earliest age to believe in the myth that we live in an era of “scarcity” by our own making. Healthy food, a good education, access to affordable healthcare, jobs with dignity, money for public services; all of these we are told, are scarce, and you must therefore fight your neighbors, your friends, and those in your own community for your individual fair share of them.

“Us” vs “them”, survival of the fittest.

When jobs are scarce you are told that “illegal” immigrants are stealing them. Or, with nearly 1 in 7 adults un- or under-employed, that you are lucky to have any job at all, so you’ll need to accept lower wages and benefits (ongoing for the past 40 years now), a loss of privacy, or now the loss of what the United Nations long ago declared a universal human right– the right to collective bargaining.

You are told that rising health insurance costs are undoubtedly caused by poor people using the emergency room as their general practitioner, or having too many children (God forbid they want a family of their own, instead of just caring for yours).

Healthy food? Organics can’t be grown on a scale large enough to feed America. Genetically modified crops and oceans of pesticides are the only way we’ll feed the world. Poor people not having access to healthy food? There’s not enough to go around; and if there was, they wouldn’t want to eat it anyway.

You are conditioned through relentless messaging received in school, the media, workplace, and government, to believe in the need to fight with those in your own community, and that if you succeed in getting your share, you are lucky to have it. As a result, you soon forget your ideals of what’s ideally possible for society as a whole, and you lower your expectations to now what is personally tolerable.

Lastly, while we believe that man-made resources are “scarce” (simply because of the values of our leaders and powerbrokers) we confoundingly treat our true finite resource, the Earth, as if it were limitless.

A staggering thirty million Americans now take anti-depressants. It doesn’t surprise me.

Capitalism creates a culture of fear, competition and antagonism towards one another and it is this that allows for Police states, class warfare, bigotry, the politics of race and gender, the erosion of human rights, the denigration of the value of caregiving, and of human life itself.

Please see Part II for reasons to believe…